By Angela W. Schultz
I’m not comfortable with death. When I say that, it doesn’t sound so strange. I suppose many people aren’t comfortable with death. But somehow, as a Latter Day Saint, I think I should be. I understand the gospel. I know that death is part of the plan of salvation. And therefore, I’d like to cruise through life transitions with relative peace. But reality is so different than theory.
By Anonymous
Choosing an abortion is probably the most grievous act within the reach of an average young woman. I made that choice, nearly twenty years ago. I was seventeen years old. The windshield of the truck was crusted with frost that winter morning; I shivered through the short drive to the clinic. I can remember many …
By Johnna Ferguson
Have a cup of tea, warm, passing from my hands to yours. Chamomile for peace, the books says. It’s the way yellow flowers gather the sun. You can wash your hair in it too. A cap of sunlight over your head. But this time, just drink. Here’s a cup, An afternoon in a sunny field …
By Elaine Rumsey Wagner
Too impatient for mortar I build tumbled towers. Gossamer-fine spider silk Slings my elephant-bridges together No bumbling drum of concrete truck Disturbs my peace Fine damp sand holds shapes Like magic. And I, I sit in my own safety, My silly solitude, And await hordes and storms.
By Christine Anne Vick
CLOTHES BOUGHT, SCRIPTURES MARKED, bags packed—I couldn’t believe it was finally my turn to go into the Missionary Training Center. A mission was one of those things I always “knew” I was supposed to do. My life plan to that point had been simple: I’d go to college; I’d serve a mission. Meeting the love …
By Kathyrn Lynard
MY ELDEST CHILD recently completed elementary school. On her last day I came to watch the “clap-out,” the annual farewell march of the sixth graders through the school hallways. Students, teachers, and parents lined up to slap palms with the graduates, while a tear-jerky song about friendship played over the intercom. As my daughter came into …
By Kathyrn Lynard
Lita Little Giddins joined the Church at age eighteen and served a mission to England Leeds in 1986-7. She earned BA and MS degrees from Brigham Young University. A gifted performer, Lita continually uses her talents to help share the gospel. She starred as Egyptus in Michael McLean’s premier production of The Ark, and is …
By Valerie Nielson Williams
I walked into the room where you were; You looked so peaceful, resting there. So natural, like you’d looked many times over the two decades I’d watched you sleep. I leaned over and kissed your lips still warm, But not reciprocating now. I smoothed your snow-white hair with my hand. By small measure my heart …
By Felicia Hanosek
MY KIDS AND I WERE VISITING MY MOM when the call came. Her ashen face rounded the corner while the phone attached to her ear periodically barked information. The barking stopped momentarily, and Mom turned to us. “I think you’d better sit down,” she croaked. “Louie is being life-flighted to University of Utah medical center.” Louie, …